DOCSLIB.ORG

Allan Gotthelf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Allan Gotthelf Allan Gotthelf Anthem Foundation Distinguished Fellow other: For Research and Teaching in Philosophy Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy The College of New Jersey Rutgers University ———— 1 Seminary Place Adjunct Professor of History and New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Philosophy of Science [email protected] University of Pittsburgh EDUCATION 1963 B.S. Mathematics Brooklyn College 1964 M.A. Mathematics Pennsylvania State University 1972 M.Phil. Philosophy Columbia University 1975 PhD. Philosophy Columbia University M.A. Essay: The Development of the System of Rational Numbers from the System of Natural Numbers within Zermelo-Fränkel Axiomatic Set Theory M.Phil. course work and exams completed 1968; degree established 1972 Ph.D. dissertation: Aristotle’s Conception of Final Causality ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT 1966-69 Instructor (Philos.) Wesleyan University 1969-84 Assistant Professor (Philos.) Trenton State College 1984-90 Associate Professor (Philos.) Trenton State College 1990-2002 Professor (Philos.) The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State Coll.) 2002- Professor Emeritus (Philos.) The College of New Jersey 2003-2012 Visiting Professor (HPS) University of Pittsburgh courses at University of Pittsburgh Undergraduate: Honors Topics in Philosophy of Science: Concepts, Essences, and the Objectivity of Kinds Graduate: Aristotle on Philosophy of Science [with J. Lennox] Aristotle’s Conception of Natural Science [with J. Lennox] Science and Philosophy in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals [Directed study: Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia] [Directed study: Aristotle’s De Incessu Animalium] Understanding Aristotle Teleology (with J. Lennox) [all graduate course cross-listed in HPS, Philosophy and Classics] Dissertation committee service: Julie Ponesse, Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, “Aristotle on Constitutive Moral Luck” (External examiner) – 2007 Gregory Salmieri, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, “Aristotle and the Problem of Concepts” – 2008 Ongoing co-direction: Corinne Bloch, Visiting Scholar, HPS, University of Pittsburgh; Cohen Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, University of Tel Aviv, “The Roles of Definitions in Science” Keith Bemer, HPS, University of Pittsburgh, “A Philosophical Examination of Aristotle’s Historia Animalium” Allan Gotthelf - 2 - EARLIER VISITING POSITIONS 1974-1975 Swarthmore College (Visiting Assistant Professor) Trinity 1984 Oxford University (Academic Visitor) graduate course: Substance and Teleology: Some Issues in Aristotle’s Biological Works (with Prof. J.L. Ackrill) Fall 1985 Georgetown University (Adjunct Associate Professor) graduate course: Metaphysics and Biology in Aristotle Trinity 1994 Oxford University (Academic Visitor) graduate course: Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (with Dr. D. Charles and Prof. J.G. Lennox) Summer 1994 Tokyo Metropolitan University (Special Guest Lecturer) ten-seminar course to professionals and advanced graduate students: Aristotle’s Biological Enterprise and Its Philosophical Significance Fall 2002 University of Texas at Austin (Visiting Professor) graduate course: Aristotle: Substance, Essence, Teleology, Kinds undergraduate course: Metaphysics: Concepts, Essences, and the Objectivity of Kinds Summer 2006 Central European University – Summer University: A Program for University Teachers four seminars as part of Philosophy and Science in the Greco-Roman World: general topic: Aristotle’s Biological Enterprise and its Philosophical Significance HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, INSTITUTE/CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP DIRECTION, ETC. 1975 First Prize, Dissertation Essay Competition, Review of Metaphysics, for “Aristotle’s Conception of Final Causality” (published 1976) 1979-80 Junior Fellowship, Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D.C. 1981 APA Summer Teaching Workshop, dir. Baruch Brody, held at Williams College, eight weeks 1982-1990 co-leader (wth Michael Hooker) of annual APA east coast weekend teaching workshops, mostly in Baltimore or Boston, 26 hours per weekend, complex program based in part on participants’ videotapes of 20 min. of an intro. class 1983 Director, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research Conference on Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology, Williamstown MA, ten days, sponsored by The Council for Philosophical Studies (co-organized with Prof. D.M. Balme) 1984 Visiting Associate, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, January-April 1984 Temporary Member of Common Room, Wolfson College, Oxford University, May- August Allan Gotthelf - 3 - HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, INSTITUTE/CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP DIRECTION (cont’d) 1985 Faculty Fellow, Princeton University, Spring semester (half-time) NEH Summer Stipend for Research, June-August Visiting Associate, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, May-August Elected Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge (to begin September) Co-Director, Cambridge/Trenton Conference on Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology, King’s College, Cambridge, 3 days (with Prof. G.E.R. Lloyd) 1986- Fellow, Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science (Pittsburgh/Princeton; Dr. Alan C. Bowen, Director) 1986-89 National Science Foundation (NSF) three-year grant for cooperative research with Prof. D.M. Balme, under U.S.-U.K. Cooperative Research Program, (three and a half summers and one semester in U.K.) 1986 Organizer, Conference on Matter and Explanation in Aristotle’s Scientific and Philosophical Works, Trenton State College, three days 1987 Temporary Member of Common Room, St. Cross College, Oxford, Hilary Term Temporary Member of Common Room, Oriel College, Oxford, March 1987 Co-Organizer, Joint U.S.-France Seminar on Interconnections of Biology, Scientific Method, and Metaphysics in Scientific and Philosophical Writings of Aristotle, NSF and CNRS (Paris), with D. Devereux (UVa.) and P. Pellegrin (CNRS), Ile d’Oléron, France, five days 1988 Co-Director, NEH Summer Institute on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Biology, and Ethics (with Profs. J.M. Cooper and M. Frede, Princeton University), sponsored by the Council for Philosophical Studies; six weeks 1992-96 NEH three-year grant, Interpretive Research Program in History/Technology of Science, for “Aristotle on Animals: Selections from the Biological Works” 2001 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (January - August) 2003-12 Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism, as visiting professor in History and Philosophy of Science dept., University of Pittsburgh, supported by Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship Resident Fellow, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Allan Gotthelf - 4 - HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, INSTITUTE/CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP DIRECTION (cont’d) 2004 Director, Workshop on the Ayn Rand’s Theory of Concepts, 4 days, held at University of Pittsburgh under auspices of Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism (May) Honoree -- Festschrift Conference: “Being, Nature and Life: A Conference Celebrating Allan Gotthelf’s Contributions to the study of Classical Philosophy and Science,” organized by J.G. Lennox (Pittsburgh) and R. Bolton (Rutgers), at University of Pittsburgh. Speakers: Robert Bolton (Rutgers), David Charles (Oxford), Allan Code (Berkeley), John Cooper (Princeton), Mary Louise Gill (Brown), James G. Lennox (Pittsburgh), Pierre Pellegrin (CNRS-Paris), David Sedley (Cambridge) (Oct) -- published by CUP 2010, ed. Lennox and Bolton. Director, Workshop on Ayn Rand’s Conception of Objectivity, 3 days, held at University of Pittsburgh under auspices of Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism (Oct-Nov) 2005 Convener, Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals, 3 days: Devin Henry, Kathleen Cook, Allan Gotthelf, James G. Lennox (August) Convener, Workshop on Ayn Rand As Aristotelian, 2 days (Nov) 2006 Co-Organizer (with Tara Smith, UT-Austin), University of Texas at Austin and University of Pittsburgh Fellowships for the study of Objectivism joint conference: Concepts and Objectivity: Knowledge, Science, Values, 3 days (Sept) 2007 Convener (with Devin Henry, U. Western Ontario), Second Pittsburgh-London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals, 2 days Co-Organizer (with Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, U. North Carolina), Workshop on Normativity and Justification in Epistemology and Ethics, at Harvey Mudd College, the Claremont Colleges, 3 days Co-Organizer (with Onkar Ghate, Ayn Rand Institute), Workshop on Objectivism and Academic Philosophy, 3 days Co-organizer (with Devin Henry, U. Western Ontario), Second Pittsburgh-London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 2 days Allan Gotthelf - 5 - HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS,INSTITUTE/CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP DIRECTION (cont’d) 2008 Co-Organizer (with Devin Henry, U. Western Ontario), Third Pittsburgh-London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 2 days Co-Director (with Gregory Salmieri), Workshop for Contributors to Ayn Rand: A Companion to Her Works and Thought (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 5 days Convener, Workshop on Pat Corvini’s work on the philosophy of mathematics, 2 days 2009 Co-Organizer (with Devin Henry, U. Western Ontario), Fourth Pittsburgh-London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 2 days Co-Organizer (with Bill Brewer), Workshop on Perception, Consciousness, and Reference, University of Warwick, 3 days 2010 Co-Organizer (with Devin Henry, U. Western Ontario), Third Pittsburgh-London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 3 days Organizer, Pittsburgh Workshop on Concepts, Induction, and Science, 3 days 2012 Co-Organizer (with Greg Salmieri, UNC-Chapel
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Originalism, Vintage Or Nouveau: “He Said, She Said” Law
    Fordham Law Review Volume 82 Issue 2 Article 10 2013 Originalism, Vintage or Nouveau: “He Said, She Said” Law Tara Smith University of Texas at Austin Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tara Smith, Originalism, Vintage or Nouveau: “He Said, She Said” Law, 82 Fordham L. Rev. 619 (2013). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol82/iss2/10 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ORIGINALISM, VINTAGE OR NOUVEAU: “HE SAID, SHE SAID” LAW Tara Smith* INTRODUCTION: AN OVERVIEW OF ORIGINALISM’S BASIC FAILURE I begin with a brief overview of originalism’s central failings. I then consider three lines of defense that help to explain its resilient appeal and proceed to critique those three lines of reasoning. Through its various incarnations, I contend, originalism is guilty of a fatal contradiction. Law represents coercion. A legal system governs by force; that is the tool that gives teeth to its rules. I say this not as an indictment of law or of government; it is simply a fact—a fact that is significant to the proper conduct of judicial review. A legal system also works by words, which state the authority that it does and does not possess and how its coercive power will be used.
    [Show full text]
  • English Authors
    Middlebury College Classics Department Library Catalog: English Titles - Sorted by Author Publish Title Subtitle Author TranslatorLanguage Binding Pages Date The Holy Bible Revised Standard Version English 1952 Hardcover 1,300 A New Aristotle J. L. Ackrill English 01/01/1988 Paperback 600 Reader The Paideia Proposal An Educational Manifesto Mortimer J. Adler English 09/01/1982 Paperback 96 Lucan An Introduction Frederick M. Ahl English 04/01/1976 Hardcover 379 Frederick Ahl & David To Read Greek... English 1969 Paperback 360 Armstrong Arab Political Thought and The Arab Predicament Fouad Ajami English 05/29/1981 Hardcover 240 Practice since 1967 Ekrem Akurgal & Max The Art Of The Hittites English 1962 Hardcover 315 Hirmer (Illustrator) The Archaeology Of W. F. Albright English 1961 Paperback 271 Palestine The Egyptians Cyril Aldred English 1963 Paperback 267 The Story Of The Famous Manuscript Discoveries And The Dead Sea Scrolls Their Momentous J. M. Allegro English 1961 Paperback 199 Significance For Students Of The Bible The First Year Of James Turney Allen English 1931 Hardcover 383 Greek Publish Title Subtitle Author TranslatorLanguage Binding Pages Date The Pronunciation of Vox Graeca W. Sidney Allen English 09/24/1987 Paperback 179 Classical Greek A Guide to the Pronunciation Vox Latina W. Sidney Allen English 08/17/1989 Paperback 152 of Classical Latin According To The Masoretic Text, A New Translation With The Aid Of Previous Versions Jewish Publication The Holy Scriptures English 1955 Hardcover 1,257 And With Constant Society Of America Consultation Of Jewish Authorities The Makers of Hebrew David Amram English 12/1988 Hardcover 418 Books in Italy Human Being and Essays on Virtue, Freedom, George Anastaplo English 04/01/1981 Paperback 0 Citizen and the Common Good Essays on Roman William S.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Four T H E P L a C E O F T H E G O O D in Aristotle's Natural Teleology
    Chapter Four The Place of the Good in Aristotle's Natural Teleology by Allan Gotthelf In previous writings I have offered an interpretation of Aristotle's conception of final causality in terms of his conception of an "irreducible potential for form."1 I have argued that final causality is operative in nature, and teleological explanation thus appropriate, only when there is being actualized a potential for a complex organic outcome which is not ontologically reducible to a sum of actualizations of potentials of the organ- ism's elemental constituents. At no place in this analysis do I refer to the goodness of that complex organic outcome.2 Some recent writers have suggested that the absence of any reference to goodness in the analysis of Aristotelian ends is a mistake. Thus, one of the most influential recent discussions of teleological explanation, John Cooper's 1982 Owen Festschrift paper, "Aristotle on Natural Teleology," begins as follows: Aristotle believed that many (not, of course, all) natural events and facts need to be explained by reference to natural goals. He understands by a goal (ov evexa) whether natural or not, something good (from some point of view) that something else causes or makes possible, where this other thing exists or hap- pens (at least in part) because of that good. Copyright © 1988 Allan Gotthelf. Revised from the paper read November 19, 1987, at Clark University, as part of the Tenth Annual Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy. 1. Gotthelf 1976/77, reprinted with a long "Postscript 1986" as Gotthelf 1987a. Cf. Gotthelf 1980, 19876.
    [Show full text]
  • Tara Smith's Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics
    Review Essay: Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist Carrie-Ann Biondi Marymount Manhattan College There has been in academic philosophy a resurgence of naturalistic virtue ethics that renders it a viable competitor with deontology and utilitarianism, making the timing opportune for the appearance of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist.1 Indeed, Smith in part situates her book within this trend, but also contrasts her explication of how Rand’s rational ethical egoism intersects with virtue theories that have at best “danced around the edges of egoism” (p. 1). Thus far, Smith’s book has been generally well received in the few reviews it has gotten,2 especially by scholars and advocates of Rand’s Objectivism. However, some attention from mainstream philosophers, even by those who are sympathetic readers,3 reveals that contemporary moral philosophers struggle to understand the nuanced value theory underlying Objectivism and are slow to embrace full-fledged egoism. This is hardly surprising, given that many (if not most) ethics 1 Tara Smith, Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 2 See Stephen Hicks, “Review of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist,” Philosophy in Review 27, no. 5 (October 2007), pp. 377-79; Helen Cullyer, “Review of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist,” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (November 12, 2006), accessed online at: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=8123; Robert Mayhew, “Review of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist,” Philosophical Books 49, no.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophical Foundations of Capitalism
    Capitalism and Morality _________________________ Philosophical Foundations of Capitalism Edward W. Younkins Professor of Accountancy Wheeling Jesuit University The power of ideas is great. If we are to educate, persuade, and convert others to free-market thinking, we need to articulate, in structured form, the conceptual and moral foundations of free enterprise. We are obliged to expound a coherent and consistent body of principles that are in accord with reality and that properly reflect and explain capitalism. In other words, we must approach the idea of free enterprise from a philosophical point of view. The survival of free enterprise may be in jeopardy unless people understand its conceptual and moral foundations. Capitalism is a rational doctrine based on a clear understanding of man and society in which economics, politics, and morality (all parts of one inseparable truth) are found to be in harmony with one another. Capitalism as defined in this essay involves that set of economic arrangements that would exist in a society in which the state’s only function would be to prevent one person from using force or fraud against another person. The enclosed exhibit provides an example model or diagram of the conceptual foundations of capitalism that are consistent with the nature of man and the world. The development of a conceptual framework is a natural endeavor that is undertaken in most areas that have claims to be called scientific or based on real world conditions. Frameworks for thinking about reality have long been the basis for organized knowledge. Constructing a set of ideas about real world objects, events, and occurrences would serve as a framework for a realistic political and economic system.
    [Show full text]
  • Tara Smith's Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: a Positive Contribution?
    Reason Papers Vol. 35, no. 1 Response to Eyal Mozes, “Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: A Positive Contribution?” Carrie-Ann Biondi Marymount Manhattan College Irfan Khawaja Felician College 1. Introduction In this discussion note, we respond to Eyal Mozes’s critique of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics via his criticism of Carrie-Ann Biondi’s review of that book in Reason Papers.1 We take issue with Mozes’s discussion of Ayn Rand’s non-conflicts-of-interest principle (NCIP) along with his discussion of the nature of moral virtue. We end by taking issue with his inappropriately moralized conception of philosophical discourse. Since we agree with many (though not all) of Mozes’s claims about emergencies and the scope of morality, we leave those topics undiscussed. 2. Conflicts of Interest Mozes offers two objections to Smith’s discussion of the NCIP: For any book that purports to be a presentation of Rand’s normative ethics, a crucial part of its task is to give an elaborate explanation and defense of Rand’s no-conflicts-of-interest-principle, filling in the details of Rand’s own cursory discussion. In evaluating such a book, I don’t think there’s any question more important than how well it succeeds in explaining and defending this principle. Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics disgracefully fails in this task.2 We reject every element of this criticism. 1 Tara Smith, Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), hereafter ARNE; Carrie-Ann Biondi, “Review Essay: Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist,” Reason Papers 30 (Fall 2008), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Tara Smith September 2016 6008 Aurora Drive Department of Philosophy Austin TX 78757 University Of
    Curriculum Vitae Tara Smith September 2016 6008 Aurora Drive Department of Philosophy Austin TX 78757 University of Texas at Austin Cell: (512)-507-3392 2210 Speedway, Stop C3500 [email protected] Austin, TX 78712-1737 (512) 471-6777 Department Fax: (512) 471-4806 Areas of Specialization Ethics, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law Education Ph.D. and MA, Philosophy, The Johns Hopkins University, 1989, 1985 Dissertation: "The Inflation of Rights" (Advisors: Susan Wolf, Richard Flathman) B.A., Philosophy and Government, University of Virginia, 1983 magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa London School of Economics and Political Science, Spring 1982 Professional Appointments Fall 2005-present, Professor, University of Texas at Austin Fall 1996-2005, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin Fall 1989-1996, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin Spring 1989, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Visiting Instructor Summer 1987-Spring 1988, Towson State University, Lecturer 1985-1988, The Johns Hopkins University, Teaching Assistant Publications Books: Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System, Cambridge University Press, 2015, 301 pages. Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics – The Virtuous Egoist, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 318 pages. Chinese edition, 2010; second Chinese translation, July 2015. Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, 205 pages. Moral Rights and Political Freedom, Rowman & Littlefield, 1995, 224 pages. Japanese edition, 1997. Articles: Forthcoming: "What Good is Religious Freedom? Locke, Rand, and the Non-Religious Case for Respecting It," Arkansas Law Review vol. 69: 4, February 2017. “Religious Liberty or Religious License? Legal Schizophrenia and the Case Against Exemptions,” Virginia Journal of Law and Politics, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method In
    Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Biology by Allan Gotthelf Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. .ISBN 978– 0–19–928795–6. Cloth $99.00 xviii + 440 Reviewed by Tiberiu Popa Butler University [email protected] Students of Aristotle may take it nearly for granted today that a rigorous study of his biological writings is worthwhile not just because of the intrinsic merits of those works but also because they can help us to acquire a deeper and more nuanced understanding of other parts and aspects of Aristotle’s oeuvre—especially his metaphysics and natural philosophy, and his philos- ophy of science.This view, however, was considerably less popular just a few decades ago. David Balme, and subsequently Allan Gotthelf, James Lennox, and other influential scholars, contributed significantly to this par- adigm shift in the field of Aristotelian studies. Besides his work devoted to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Gotthelf is well known as the author of many seminal articles and chapters on ancient philosophy, and as the editor or co-editor of several important books on Aristotle’s biological treatises and their philosophical implications. His prominent place in the recent history of Aristotelian scholarship has been acknowledged, among other things, by the publication of Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle: Essays in Honor of Allan Gotthelf [2010]. Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Biology gathers 16 articles (some based on conference presentations), of which four—chapters 4, 12,
    [Show full text]
  • Aestimatio 10 (2013) 355–365 356 Aestimatio
    In memoriam Allan Gotthelf (30 December 1942–30 August 2013) ⋆ James G. Lennox University of Pittsburgh [email protected] Allan Gotthelf passed away on August 30, 2013 in his apartment in Philadel- phia under the care of close friends, finally succumbing to the cancer that he had battled successfully for many years. He has left behind a lasting legacy of distinguished scholarship on Aristotle’s philosophy and science; but more than that, Allan was able, through his infectious enthusiasm, spirit of coopera- tion, and formidable organizational skills, to reshape the field of Aristotelian studies fundamentally. Not only through his scholarly publications but through his prodigious organization of workshops, conferences, summer insti- tutes, and a truly astounding network of correspondence, which only became more astounding with the advent of the Internet, Allan was able to involve an ever expanding number of scholars in a systematic study of Aristotle’s biological writings, encouraging us to consider the Generation of Animals, Parts of Animals and History of Animals as much a part of our scholarly diet as the Organon, Metaphysics, or Nicomachean Ethics.Indeed, he en- couraged us to think of these investigations as sources of insight into these philosophical works and not merely as documents in the history of biology. Born in Brooklyn on December 30, 1942, Allan Gotthelf came of age during the heyday of the Brooklyn Dodgers, attending games at Ebbets Field as a young boy shortly after Jackie Robinson had joined the team, an event that left
    [Show full text]
  • Just Sayin'—How the False Equivalence of Speech With
    JUST SAYIN’—HOW THE FALSE EQUIVALENCE OF SPEECH WITH ACTION UNDERMINES THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH Tara Smith* ABSTRACT This Article argues that a firm distinction between speech and ac- tion is critical to the preservation of freedom of speech. The line be- tween the two has blurred in recent years in disputes over such things as cake bakers’ artistic freedom to refuse certain clients, disruptions of speakers on college campuses, whether campaign finance restrictions limit spending or speaking, and social media companies’ status as platforms or publishers. For the legal system to resolve such conflicts correctly and to uphold the proper boundaries of individuals’ freedom, a firm grasp of the respective referents of “speech” and “action” is imperative. The Article is in two main parts. First, it presents the basic rationale for a legal system’s treating speech and action differently. It explains that the distinctive concern of the First Amendment is the protection of intellectual activity and demonstrates how the relationship of intellectual activities to the rights of others justifies their special legal status. Second, the Article considers the case for viewing speech and action as more readily intermingled, addressing arguments that, in turn, invoke harm, power, and symbolic speech. On analysis, none of these arguments, I show, vindicates the equation of speech with action. Finally and more briefly, the Article also considers some of the underlying sources of the conflation of speech with action, sketches the proper resolutions of a few of the recent controversies generated by * Professor of Philosophy, BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism, and Anthem Foundation Fellow for the Study of Objectivism at the University of Texas at Austin.
    [Show full text]
  • What About Suicide Bombers? a Terse Response to a Terse Objection
    Ethics What About Suicide Bombers? A Terse Response to a Terse Objection Marc Champagne On September 11, 2010, after presenting selected technical aspects of a Randian ethic at a prominent academic conference,1 I was confronted with the following objection, somewhat belligerent in tone: “But what about suicide bombers?” What about them? Despite the objection’s contextual timeliness, my initial reaction was to question its topical relevance.2 So I politely requested that the criticism be further unpacked. My interlocutor duly obliged, and I eventually gleaned that murder-suicide (say, in the name of some otherworldly posit) was being adduced as a supposed counterexample to the rational egoist account of values I had just expounded. I don’t recall my exact response, only that I was dissatisfied with it afterwards. The audience member clearly thought he had unearthed a powerful criticism, and the objection, though crude, had the rhetorical merit of brevity. Such an intuitively attractive “sound bite,” I later thought, deserves to be answered in kind. Tellingly, a similar objection to Rand’s metaethics was raised in the pages of this journal. Reviewing Tara Smith’s (2000) pioneering study of Rand’s metaethical ideas, Lester Hunt claims to have discerned some “curious implications” in her views. Upon describing the conduct of a violent wanton who would uncontroversially be classified as morally despicable, Hunt contends that “[t]he position that Smith adopts would seem to mean [. .] that we can pass no moral judgments here at all,” since “[t]he individual involved happens not to desire the end (life) toward which distinctions of right and wrong are means” (2000, 109).
    [Show full text]
  • Carlin Romano on Ayn Rand
    Reason Papers Vol. 34, no. 2 Afterwords America the Philosophical: Carlin Romano on Ayn Rand Stephen Hicks Rockford College Over the years I’ve enjoyed and learned from many of Carlin Romano’s articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education. He can do good philosophical reporting. So I picked up his latest book, America the Philosophical, and I was disappointed.1 Romano’s thesis is that the United States is a nation of vigorous philosophical activity and—contrary to the critics who portray it as an intellectual wasteland of complacency and platitudes—a culture that takes philosophy seriously. It’s a great topic, and I agree with Romano’s thesis. First impressions matter, however, and the first section of America the Philosophical I read was the eight pages on philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, a case study in how not to write about other philosophers (pp. 359-66). Here’s how to write a book about other philosophers: (1) Present their positions. (2) At least sketch the arguments for the positions they take. (3) Criticize those positions when necessary by making counter- arguments. Here’s how not to write about other philosophers: (4) Ignore the academic literature about the philosopher and use only critical remarks gleaned from amateurs or non-philosopher professionals. (5) Focus more on gossip about the philosopher’s person rather than the person’s philosophy. (6) Identify the philosopher’s views in passing with those of contemporary politicians whom you despise. 1 Carlin Romano, America the Philosophical (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). Reason Papers 34, no. 2 (October 2012): 245-247.
    [Show full text]